Athabasca Island

Pic­ture your­self on a desert­ed island, in the mid­dle of the riv­er, Rocky Moun­tain style. Haul your camp­ing gear for a night or two. Let the riv­er take you effort­less­ly down­stream. It is always bet­ter when the water is high. Bring your own fire­wood, as there won’t be any to use, unless you want to camp with­out a fire.

Chill­in’ way to floatHaul­ing gear on inflat­a­bles

Meth­ods of trav­el­ing to this area is Canoe, Kayak and Raft. I find a raft is is the slow­est means, but it can haul plen­ty of gear.

Soft sandy beachremote and serene

Start­ing points on this trip can vary. Sev­er­al areas, you can park and put in to the riv­er. Old Fort Point (my favorite), park­ing and easy access to the riv­er, also the end­ing point to the raft­ing com­pa­nies, be sure not to park where the raft­ing com­pa­nies need access to.

beau­ty sur­rounds this placepri­vate beach

Short­er dis­tance access is at the Mobery bridge (the one that cross­es the Athabas­ca to access the Fair­mont Jasper Park Lodge and Maligne val­ley), the grav­el area just north of the bridge is where you can put in.

the hauler, every­thing you need can be packedmore options after this island

Anoth­er access is the Sixth Bridge, there is park­ing where the day use area is plus you can put in at the Maligne riv­er to get a lit­tle rush pri­or to con­nect­ing the Athabas­ca riv­er.

Did I men­tion, pack fire­wood?fire­wood, check!

What ever you decide, you still have to shut­tle a vehi­cle at Jasper Lakes, there are some park­ing pull outs on the south­side of Hwy 16. When you come out from the Athabas­ca Island, you will hit slow and shal­low waters of the Jasper Lakes, just head for the hwy and you should find your vehi­cle.

go just a lit­tle fur­ther and the land­ing will be bet­ter

Book your camp­site with Parks Cana­da and your vehi­cle and you should have no trou­ble park­ing over night at these points. Hope this helps, and if you need more info on this, please leave a com­ment below.